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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
round here, stranger; that's Joe Hawkins, champion quoit pitcher
of this here county !'
"And you'd think he was introducin' the President of the
United States."
Personality lies in method of conversation, habits and
clothes. We are acquainted with a young man who sells ad-
vertising. It is his business to persuade manufacturers that the
proper kind of advertising will make their products stick out
from the rest and will give them individuality. This young man
backs up his statements with his own personality. He wears
clothes that fairly scream, silk shirts with thirty-seven distinct
colors in them, orange cravats that shame the sun for brightness,
trick hats that are in a class by themselves. His line of conver-
( Salesmanship )
13
sation is as original as his clothes, and his entire bearing is
unusual and most distinct.
He does it all to attract attention and the logic of his course
is set forth in his own words: "I spend my time persuading
other men to advertise. Why not take a little of my own medi-
cine and advertise myself?" This incident is extreme, we will
admit, but everybody in the trade knows him and likes him. He
has developed personality both in conversation and raiment and
the system pays.
In studying all that goes to make up the ideal salesman
don't forget personality. Do something or be something that
sticks out from the rest. One doesn't have to be a comedian,
but originality is an essential.
The Importance of the Correct Viewpoint in Selling
selves. Salesmen should have the opportunity of acquainting
in its broader sense is essentially the sell-
S man's ALESMANSHIP
themselves freely with the processes of manufacture. They
ing of one's viewpoint—the ability to start with the other
should
not be strangers to the factory or the shop. Their interest
point of view and lead his mind to the desired end. When
an individual endeavors to influence another to adopt a certain
mental attitude or to take the desired action, he is practising
salesmanship. In this broad sense, everyone can profit by a
knowledge of the principles of salesmanship and successful sell-
ing methods, and it is largely through such knowledge as this
that so many of our most able business executives have risen
from the selling ranks.
The advertising manager must sell his board of directors on
the advocacy of an advertising campaign. The corporation treas-
urer must sell the bank on his proposition when he goes to
borrow funds. The great lawyer, pleading before a jury, is
simply trying to sell that jury his point of view. Every man,
then, has a vital interest in that knowledge of the human mind
and that practise of persuasion in which lies the essence of
salesmanship.
The employer is often to blame for one defect in his sales-
men. Employers need to take the salesmen more into their con-
fidence, and see that they know the constructive features of
their goods as thorough^, if possible, as the employers them-
should be stimulated, and their knowledge increased. They
cannot approach the ideal until they know far more, practically,
of the goods they are selling, and this they cannot learn unless
their employers give them a chance.
A thorough knowledge of the line he is handling will do
more than any one other thing to give the piano salesman the
correct selling viewpoint. If his knowledge is merely super-
ficial, and is confined to a few glittering generalities concerning
handsome cases and excellence of tone, it is small wonder that
the difficult prospect, the prospect who really must be "sold,"
slips away without leaving his name on the order blank.
When the salesman thoroughly understands the piano which
he is endeavoring to sell, and knows its qualities sufficiently well
to enable him not only to demonstrate its good points but to
prove why they are good, he is well fortified against failure.
The piano salesman who knows his line, and who is en-
thusiastic concerning it, will be enabled to impart that same
enthusiasm to his prospect, which in turn can be made a powerful
lever for a speedy and satisfactory sale.
A Knocker Is Only Found on the Outside of the Door
piano dealer of an Eastern town, who has de-
A PROMINENT
veloped an extensive business on an anti-knocking basis,
believes strongly enough in that policy to hang up in his office
framed models very much to the point. One such legend reads:
"We do not allow our salesmen to criticize our competitor's goods,"
and in close collaborative connection is a bit of verse which deco-
rates an inner office, and which every piano salesman may well
learn by heart, for it contains a philosophy which is both sound
and useful:—
Boost and the world boosts with you,
Knock and you're on the shelf,
For the world gets sick of the man who'll kick,
And wishes he'd kick himself.
Boost for your own achievements,
Boost for the things sublime,
For the one who is found on the topmost round
Is the booster every time.
With the arrival of the Millennium there may come a salesman
who never under any consideration knocks a competitor. All busi-
ness is unquestionably working toward that idea, but progress is
slow, and a realization will require constant insistence on the im-
portance of the live-and-let-live policy. The temptation to rap
gently at the other man's goods, methods, or personality is some-
times overwhelmingly strong, and particularly when the other man
has profited directly through knocking you. But resisting the
temptation undoubtedly pays in the end.
The Twentieth Century Greed of the Real Salesman
O respect my profession, my 1 employers and myself. To be
honest and fair with my employers as I expect them to be
honest and fair with me, to think of them with loyalty, speak of
them with praise and act always as a custodian of their good name.
To be a man whose word carries weight at my place of em-
ployment ; to be a booster, not a knocker; a pusher, not a kicker; a
motor, not a clog.
To base my expectations of reward on a solid foundation of
service rendered, to be willing to pay the price of success in honest
effort. To look upon my work as an opportunity to be seized with
joy and made the most of, and not as painful drudgery to be re-
luctantly endured.
To remember that success lies within myself, in my own brain,
my own ambition, my own courage and determination. To expect
difficulties and force my way through them; to turn hard experience
into capital for future struggles.
To believe in my goods heart and soul; to carry an air of
T
optimism into the presence of possible customers; to dispel ill-
temper with cheerfulness, kill doubts with strong convictions and
reduce active friction with an agreeable personality.
To make a study of my business, to k-now my profession in
every detail from the ground up, to mix brains with my efforts and
use system and method in my work.
To find time to do everything needful by never letting time
find me doing nothing.
To hoard days as a miser hoards dollars; to make every hour
bring ine dividends in commissions, in increased knowledge or
healthful recreation.
To keep my future unmortgaged with debt; to save money as
well as earn it; to cut out expensive amusements untH I can afford
to enjoy them ; to fight against nothing so hard as my own weak-
ness and to endeavor to grow as a salesman and as a man with the
passage of every day of time.
This is my creed.